THE LEFT WING/ LIBERTARIAN MOVEMENT REFUSAL TO LOOK AT MUSLIM HOMOPHOBIA AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

There is currently a deliberate refusal in the left wing/ libertarian movement to look at the very serious problem of Islam's extremely homophobic views, which is disgraceful and very alarming because of the consequences of not addressing this problem e.g. the recent court case in Derby over the gay hate leaflet distributed by Muslims. Islamic views on gay and lesbian rights are incompatible with liberal views on gay and lesbian rights. This is not to say that Islam doesn't have anything good in it, it does, but when a religion actively says its ok to say you can hang people simply for their sexuality then you should attack it in that area of its beliefs. I am an out gay myself and I class myself has a member of left wing/ libertarian movement until this refusal to address this issue occurred, but I will not support a movement which actively refuses to help stop homophobia and in some cases actively says Muslims are not homophobic in those cases where they are. I simply class myself as an independent thinker now opposed to right wing ideology.

There are many examples I could quote of Muslim homophobia in Britain - the attack on a gay student in Tower Hamlets by a gang of young Muslims which resulted in the gay male student being permanently paralysed, the Manchester Iman who called for gays to be thrown of the top of buildings, the case of the Muslim in Tower Hamlets who went round putting "Gay Free Zone" stickers in public places and the fact that many London gay venues have received death threats from Muslims because they are outraged that gay people dare be public about being gay. In all these cases if it had been done by a white Nazi anti-fascists would have been in uproar about it, but when left wing gays like Peter Tatchell have reported it they have been labelled right wingers and EDL supporters.
People have rightfully attacked the Christian belief system over its homophobia, sexism etc, but not when Muslims do it - yet at the same time they have labelled gays and lesbians who are demanding their due rights racist in an attempt to stop them and others from speaking out - that is hypocrisy and adopting the tactics of bullies and oppresive regimes. The same thing happened with Outrages campaign against Jamaican gay murder music - the Socialist Worker called it potentially racist and said gay people should call the campaign of and have meeting with those in the black community who listen to this music. Yet Outrages campaign was actively supported by black gays and lesbians who didn't want other black people singing "bang bang in the batty boys head".

I believe that this issue isn't being dealt with because it raises a topic many people won't even acknowledge - that immigration has both good and bad aspects to it. To be fair I can understand why many Muslim immigrants and their children are offended by Western attitudes to gays and lesbians when you take into account that in Islamic countries they kill gays and lesbians just for being themselves - in Iran alone 105 gay men are known to have been hanged simply for being gay and if you look on Youtube there are many examples of Islamic TV shows which regularly say gays should be tortured, then thrown of buildings etc. This is not to say that all Muslims are homophobic, but many are and surveys done for newspapers have shown this. From my experiences I've had more homophobic abuse of Muslims and the black community and these communities I believe are more homophobic then the white community nowdays. The real tragedy of this is that the most people who support immigration don't want to be seen as anti-immigrants and their cultures yet by doing this they are actively supporting homophobia and refusing to help gay and lesbian Muslims from stopping oppression. There is a difference between a racist and some one who is against Islam - Islam is a religion and not an individual and religion is as Marx said "the opium of the people". Religion is there to control people and to stop free thinking and revolutionary movements - it is extremely right wing in its origins. All people are doing by not dealing with this issue is to support and strengthen an extreme right wing ideology, which holds the same views has the Nazis did when it comes to gay and lesbians - kill the gays and lesbians. In this area Islam is no different to the BNP and their supporters

There are times when everyone and all campaign groups have to deal with issues where they have to say the behaviour of an individual or group they support is unacceptable and this is one of them. Most people and campaign groups take the easy option out in such circumstances and refuse to answer inconvenient questions or requests for help. All this does is cause people like me to stop supporting them and in many cases other people will simply join right wing groups like the EDL which have gay sections in them.

Many of my friends who are gay or lesbian are like me - they do like the EDL, but have to accept that when the EDL says that British Islamics are a threat to gay rights it is correct - yet I, and they know that most of them are probably only using this as a convenient stick to attack the Muslim community with. I personally see both the EDL and the Islamic community as a threat to gay rights and the individuals right - they are both oppressive and a threat. Unless Muslim homophobia is tackled upfront by the left wing/ libertarian movements many currently non-political gays and lesbians will take the current refusal to deal with it has supporting homophobia and never support left wing/ libertarian views. They will simply support the right wing groups and vote Conservative, who are currently supporting gay rights as a tactic e.g. foreign aid being reduced if a country supports homophobia etc. Despite it being a tactic when the Con/ Lib Dem government spoke up about the ongoing saga of the anti-gay bill in Uganda they will have gained alot of the gay and lesbian votes. Yet I never saw a single major article on the Ugandan anti-gay bill on left wing/ libertarian websites I read whilst it is a major issue and yet such groups say they support gay and lesbian rights.

To be blunt, using another example - one of my friends knew a young gay British Muslim, his family found out he was gay and kidnapped him, they wanted to kill him and he only lived because he escaped and moved to another part of the country to go into hiding from his family. A religion whose followers believe they are entitled to do this to one of their own family who simply happens to be gay should not be supported by those who say they believe in gay and lesbian rights. The recent trial of 5 Muslims in Derby for distributing a leaflet calling for gays to be hanged with a photo of a dummy being hung has made Muslim homophobia a big political issue which will probably once increase in intensity. Left wing/ libertarian groups unless they take and run with this issue will lose alot of support and will probably never regain it from gays and lesbians because they, like me, have real fears over British Islamic homophobia and what might happen in the future if it isn't stopped.